Agent uses simple tactic to attract more buyers

Alex Mintorn of McGrath Pymble sold a three-bedroom house at Turramurra for $1,515,000 by identifying market trends in his agency’s database to target potential buyers.

“Looking at the last two years of sales, the data and where buyers are moving from – approximately 68 per cent of our buyers were coming from out of area,” Mr Mintorn said.

Using this information, Mr Mintorn called, emailed and sent out text messages to people on the database from areas previous buyers had typically moved from.

“In particular we looked for buyers that were moving out of the inner west, the lower north shore and the eastern suburbs,” he said.

Mr Mintorn’s strategy proved successful. Of the 80 people who viewed the property, approximately half of them were from out of area.

“The buyer actually came from Botany in the eastern suburbs. And this was the first property that they’d seen in the upper north shore, so they’d obviously been contacted through the database,” he said.

Despite the holiday period, Mr Mintorn had no hesitations about holding the auction on the Saturday.

“I think for the right property, people will change things and move things round so they can have the chance to compete to buy something as special as this,” he said.

“A good property will always sell regardless of what time of year.”

Mr Mintorn won the listing through a long-standing relationship with the vendors whom he was in regular contact with over the past three years.

He also helped the vendors present the property ahead of the open house.

“Because they’d already moved, I helped them project manage the presentation of the property, so landscaping, painting, carpets, just prettying it up,” he said.

“Obviously they’re busy people with busy lives, so I used my team to make sure that they got that done and I think they just appreciated the service.”

According to Mr Mintorn, five out of ten registered bidders put their hands in the air on the day at what was a “very competitive” auction.